Tag Archives: painting

Today is National Make a Gift Day and coincidentally it also happens to be one of our busiest days of the year!

We’ve had a very busy Christmas period as those of you who have been in over the last few months will know!

As usual, baubles have been our best sellers with hundreds of hand printed festive beauties having passed through our hard working kiln in the last four weeks alone.

But we’ve also seen some other wonderful creations, including mince pie plates, Santa mugs and snow man tea pots. The loveliest thing for us is knowing that around 90% of the painted pottery leaving our studio is on its way to surprise a lucky recipient as a Christmas gift! There are many lucky mums and dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends out there that are about to become owners of super cute baubles where tiny foot prints have been turned into reindeer or plates featuring a Christmas tree made from little hand prints.

If you’re stuck for something special for a loved one- then there’s still time to make something at Crafty Monkey and have it ready in time for Christmas day.

Booking is essential at this time of year, so don’t forget to call us on 01480219222 to reserve yourself a table.

We’ve produced some lovely items lately using silkscreen and we’re so pleased with the results that we thought we’d be kind enough to share our secrets with you in our step-by-step guide!

Here’s how we made our funky Lambretta plate!

STEP 1

Begin by choosing the base colour for your plate. We chose white because we wanted to give our plate a stripy background so used it as a nice light colour for our first application of paint.

STEP 2

Using a sponge, cover the plate in three coats of underglaze. You’ll need to work quite quickly as you don’t want the paint to dry out completely just yet.

STEP 3

If you’re making a stripy plate like we did, tear up some strips of paper and dunk them in cold water. If you wanted nice neat stripes then you can cut them beautifully, but we liked the idea of having a slightly rougher effect.

STEP 4

Lay the strips onto the plate to form stripes.

STEP 5

Using your second choice of colour, dab the underglaze over the plate, again do three coats. You could also brush the paint on, depending on whether you want a mottled or a block colour effect.

STEP 6

Carefully pull the strips of paper away.

STEP 7

Time to watch paint dry! Ensure your base coats are completely dry before you attempt the next stage.

STEP 8

Take your chosen silkscreen (in our case, a Lambretta) and lay it onto the plate, fixing it into place lightly with low tack masking tape.

STEP 9

Before using a silkscreen, you need to thicken the underglaze up. You can buy professional thickening agents, but we mixed in cornflour which is just as effective. It needs to be the consistency of toothpaste..

STEP 10

Apply your underglaze by dabbing it on with your finger. You can also use small dabbing sponges for this if your prefer. Different colours can be applied to different areas of the silkscreen if you prefer.

STEP 11

Carefully lift the silkscreen to reveal your design underneath.

STEP 12

Your plate is now looking fab and is ready to be glazed and fired in the kiln!

Well, we’re somewhere in between spring and summer, but somebody really ought to try telling the weather that! Most of us have still got the heating on in the evenings and the factor 30 hasn’t yet been pulled out of the cabinet.

It’s entirely possible that the wonderful outdoorsy inspired pieces that have been painted recently are reflective of the fact that our customers are desperate to enjoy the delights of our green and pleasant land once again.

Some wonderful pieces of artwork have been produced at Crafty Monkey, including beautiful sunsets, rolling fields and little feathered friends on branches. For those that don’t want to create their own scene- we have plenty of tiles and coasters that are already painted with an outline (so it’s a bit like colouring in with paint!) so people can create floral masterpieces or sunny beach scenes without having to craft their own outlines!

While there’s plenty to bring the outdoors in- we also offer the reverse! We have plant pots, gnomes and birdhouses. All crying out to be embellished with lashings of love and set out into the wild!

If it’s still cold and windy when you read this- why not come along and visit us and we’ll do our best to bring a little sunshine into your life!

It’s not a well-known national celebration, but we think it’s one that’s worth embracing because at Crafty Monkey, we’re friends of the Gingerbread Man!

Yes, today is National Gingerbread Decorating Day and we’re up for participating with our offerings of hanging Gingerbread decorations and cute Gingerbread plates! These particular items are so very popular amongst our painters that they don’t get shoved into a dusty cupboard at the end of December- we love to celebrate the cheeky little chappies all year round!

If you fancy trying your hand at painting a Gingerbread plate for your festive table or a mini version for your Christmas Tree, then come along and we’ll show you how!

Remember that booking is essential during the Christmas period as our studio is permanently full of festive painters making gifts and keepsakes in time for Christmas.

Well today is the start of advent, how will you start counting down the days? We can’t believe that December is actually here. We have been talking about Christmas since September when the Christmas stock arrived and now we are panicking that there really aren’t many days left. Arghhhhh

Mums, why not book in for the little one and we can take an impression of their hand and foot print and you can take a leaflet home to pass to Dad or the Grandparents who can give us a call to order your special jewellery piece. Easy peasy for them and you get a perfect present too!

We are open on a Thursday evening until 9pm (by appointment) for adults only to come and paint in a relaxing atmostphere. We have mellow and calm tunes on the stereo and there are no kiddies so you can come along, chill out and get away from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas craziness and paint something either for you or as a present. Our Christmas range isn’t just for kids you know, after all you do need a nice dish for your peanuts don’t you! We sell hot drinks to keep you warm from the winter chill or you could always bring a tipple with you and your pals for a little Christmas get together. Perfect we say!

This year, we’ve noticed a massive growing trend in our customers’ love for creating with penguins! If the children aren’t making a grab for the penguin teddies when they come to Build a Bear, then they’re pulling our pottery penguin items such as bowls, mugs, money boxes and ornaments from the shelves to paint or decorate with the ever popular Foam Clay.

And speaking of inhabitants of chilly climes, it can’t go unmentioned that the fantastic film, ‘Frozen’ is still very much an ongoing theme in Crafty Monkey. Plenty of children have tried their hand at painting their favourite ‘Frozen’ characters onto mugs and plates and we have done several commissions, including an Elsa plate as special gifts for children. Some of our younger customers have even turned up wearing their beautiful Anna and Elsa frocks (don’t worry- they wore aprons!)

Book your table at Crafty Monkey to try your hand at painting some chilly treats as soon as possible…we don’t want you to be left out in the cold…

Ah me hearties, at Crafty Monkey we love the theme of Pirates and Princesses so when we found out that 19th September is talk like a pirate day, our timbers were certainly shivered!

We always have in stock a range of pirate pottery pieces to paint, which range from skulls to parrots to actual pirates, arrrrr matey, or you could pick a mug or a plate and paint a pirate theme onto it! We can always arrange for a pirate and princess themed party. Or if build a bear is your thing then you could treat your build a bear to a pirate outfits!

Also coincidentally, I will be hosting a Birthday party soon which will be pirate themed so pin the eye patch on the pirate, walk the plank, pass the booty among other piratey games with the winners being able to take a dip in the treasure chest. In order to get into the spirit I will certainly be brushing up my pirate accent (currently my pirate accent is somewhere in the middle of a farmers accent and an Irish accent!) and I’ve found a great little pirate talk translator tool which I will be making the most of!

So why not release the inner pirate in you and what better excuse than on talk like a pirate day aye!